I thought I'd give face2face fundraising their own entry because as jobs in Sydney go, getting one with them seems to be relatively easy and a lot better than a lot of the other jobs about. One thing I will say is that you definitely need to have a strong grasp of the english language - completely fluent, not just conversational as the role involves a *lot* of talking!
I discovered them through the job board of the hostel I was at at the time, Wakeup! in Sydney. They had a phone number, which I rang on the Thursday afternoon and was asked to come along to the group interview on the Friday afternoon.
The interview was at a building in North Sydney - dead easy to find. North Sydney train station and then about five minutes walk up the road. It was a group interview of around 12 peole which focussed a lot on what the company was about as well as asking us the standard interview stylee questions about ourselves. Towards the end we had to do roleplays in pairs, just basically selling something to the other person.
I heard back from them on the Monday, informing me I had the job. Excellent, no long wait. Normally, training would have been Tuesday / Wednesday but due to Australia Day it was pushed back a day and was Wednesday / Thursday instead. For training we had to go back to the same office as we'd gone for the interview. We had to be there for 9:30am, so not too bad!
The first day of training mainly consisted of being assigned to a charity (as they work with three) and then learning about your charity, and what pitch to use, etc as well as the best prospective pledgers (people who were most likely to sign up the the monthly donation). We were asked to write our own pitch and then to perform it in front of the group. Afer that, we were given a scripted pitch and asked to learn it for the next day, or at least give it a good shot. We finished at about 16:30, and we'd had about an hour and a halfs worth of breaks throughout the day too.
The next day we started at the same time, and the first thing we did was head out of the office to a nearby park to pair up and practice the pitches we'd been asked to learn. I picked mine up pretty well, whether it would have actually worked on the street is another matter entirely but at least I knew what to say unlike some of the others! I think the main thing was getting the general gist of it and knowing the important numbers and facts - I wasn't sticking to the script word for word, but its dead hard to do that and still sound natural! After that we headed back to the office and went over objections, i.e what to say in reply to the common reasons people give as to why they can't donate, like they can't afford it.
The afternoon consisted of lots of form signing. And I mean *lots*. There was a main contract, as well as a million forms to say we'd act responsible and respectable for the company etc, forms about using company cars and taking company stock (like the t-shirts and ID badges), we had to fill out forms for our personal and bank details, one for our Tax File Number.. the list goes on. After that we were given our 'stock' and then we were pretty much done other than organising the events of the next day.
Friday was what our trainer called 'boot camp' - basically going out on the street and actually practicing it all for real, though theres no pressure because technically you haven't finished training yet. I didn't make it to boot camp, seeing as I was on a 7 hr train to Walcha Road!
RIGHT, the important bit. The basic wages were $17.17 and you were paid on a fortnightly basis. However.. it was a full time job (40 hrs) and you were only paid for *20 hours a week*. Within those 20 paid hours, you were expected to achieve *5* pledges. After those 5, you earned commision for each person you signed up, and get this - $75 a person?! Personally I found it a bit suspect wondering where that kind of money came from, especially for a company thats supporting charities, but who am I to question? So basically, even if you were shockingly rubbish and only got those 5 pledges per week, you still earnt your 20 x $17.17 (before tax). Therefore.. this job could be fantastically well paid, but only if you were good at it! But, still better than your standard backpacker-in-Sydney-sales-job which normally is 100% commision and if you don't sell anything you don't get SQUAT.
Another relatively important thing - the company works all over NSW and sometimes in Southern Australia (SA). So, when you join up you can either be a Sydney worker or a Travel Tripper. I signed up as a travel tripper obviously, and that means that at any time you can be sent to anywhere around NSW or SA. Accomodation and travel is all paid for, so theres no additional costs, and you generally would work Monday - Saturday whilst being there Sunday - Sunday. So, you'd get some spare personal time whilst in these random cities - sounds like an added bonus to me!
Overall I thought face2face sounded like a pretty decent company to work for - when I go back to Sydney I'm hoping to give them a call and see if I can still work for them as I've gone through all the training and everything! Definitely a pretty sound company, and potential to earn a lot of money if you were good at the job! On a personal note, I'd much rather earn money whilst trying to earn money for charities instead of doing it whilst having to sell hairdresser packages or trips for backpackers!
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